Hello!

I love it!  I put a picture of a baby up top last Tuesday and his link (to 1965’s Georgy Girl) made the Trailers from Hell most popular article list for two days. I’m not kidding, I got notes from people who understood how the ‘click on this’ link works and notes from some that didn’t. Right about this time many of us are thinking of children and even new babies that we cannot see, meet or hold in person until a certain global problem is put to rest.

This holiday let’s keep all the babies safe and snug from health hazards, of all kinds.

I guess the Warners decision to release all of its 2021 films to streaming at the same time that theaters get them is the big news this week: Warner Bros. to Debut Entire 2021 Film Slate, Including Dune and Matrix 4, Both on HBO Max and In Theaters. I’m already receiving pub announcements from a research firm stating that ‘audiences will demand’ to see movies on their home screens after the pandemic has passed, too. Of course, they’re thumping for HBO Max.

We’re all thinking of things that may not go back to ‘normal’ after the pandemic passes. Businesses gone, services changed. A lot of restaurants and independent bookstores, of course.

But a close associate sees the Big News of the ‘eclipse of the theaters’ as an acceleration of what the big studio content providers — most of which are consolidated under broad corporate umbrellas — have been wanting to do for years: cut those troublesome exhibitors out of the loop. I think that the theater-going habit will come back, at least for some segment of the audience. When it is safe to do so people are surely going to want to get out of the house, just like they always have. I’m no longer a once-a-week moviegoer, and I’m not sure anybody really is, but the already shrunken theater market out there will surely become even smaller. “Event Movies” will of course continue, but modest dramas and arthouse films for older audiences? … not so sure about them. They may be doomed forever to wander between the winds take up permanent residence in splinter streaming systems, away from mass distribution.

←  I was told last week that a similar ‘sudden’ shift in the technical end of the movie business happened nine years ago. Remember the havoc of the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami?   One small part of its aftermath was that some Japanese factories that produced much of the world’s magnetic videotape were put out of commission. Before 2011 most everything was recorded on videotape, even as the trend toward videochip and hard drive recording grew. The industry resisted because post houses (which would soon mostly disappear as well) made huge profits passing on the cost of videotape to their customers. In the ’90s I’d walk out of an $800 editing session with $500 worth of show dubs, backup dubs, work tape dubs. When the 2011 earthquake cut off the supply of videotape stock production shifted to the new model. ‘Camera’ digital recordings were backed up on various drives, and videotape use in some applications went into decline. My ‘career’ in advertising and trailers is in my attic, on 1″, 3/4″ and digibeta tapes … all of which aren’t that easy to play anyplace, anymore. There’s still plenty of videotape around, it hasn’t disappeared entirely.

We’re accustomed to most industry evolution being a gradual process, like the general ‘de-film’ transformation that changed the business in the 1990s. Just as I got out of trailer work, editing on 35mm, going to a film lab and an audio mix with tracks cut on magnetic film was the norm. Then digital finishing took over, a change as big as the shift in special effects to CGI. No more mixing houses with banks of audio dubbers, no more learning how to explain an effect to an optical house by marking a work print with grease pencil. I almost trained to become an optical line-up expert, prepping elements and taking counts for an optical printer operator. That entire rarified specialty disappeared overnight.

But that was natural evolution, not a consequence of a tsunami or a plague. The pandemic is obviously changing the world — how many more companies will now decide that it’s just fine to have employees work from home?  What will happen to all the surplus office space?  Will fewer cars be sold to fewer commuters?  How much less business travel will there be, if vendors don’t have to impress clients by flying thousands of miles to make in-person pitches?

But the big news for the impact of the pandemic on Hollywood is the boost given to streaming. Empty theaters are definitely helping the streaming model conquer more visual entertainment. And the companies that like that idea are already crowing that ‘audience demand’ will be for new movies to be immediately available to their home theaters in ‘normal’ times as well.

And finally, some good news from overseas, a CineSavant SCOOP of sorts. Ulrich Bruckner of Explosive Media has made arrangements to release two epic Italian sword ‘n’ sandal epics on Blu-ray, probably arriving next Spring (2021). Both were produced in Rome by Titanus. I won’t know any more details for months; Explosive Media discs are almost always English friendly, and some are All-Region. We’re hoping for original, longer versions, of course.

First Up will be Romolo e Remo, the 1961 epic about the founding of Rome filmed in CinemaScope. Starring as the warring brothers is the unbeatable peplum team of Steve Reeves and Gordon Scott. Their co-star is Virna Lisi. The English version of the show, reduced by nineteen minutes, was distributed by Paramount as Duel of the Titans. It’s said to be a quality epic all down the line — the director is Sergio Corbucci (you know, the director of Nebraska Jim) and the music is by Piero Piccioni.

Explosive has also licensed the truly epic 1962 Titanus production Sodoma e Gomorra, known in America as The Last Days of Sodom and Gomorrah or simply Sodom and Gomorrah. A huge bust for Robert Aldrich in his European career detour, the show has an all-star cast: Stewart Granger, Anouk Aimée, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Scilla Gabel and Alice and Ellen Kessler.

It’s coming from Italy, so we’re hoping that the disc will be remastered (it needs it) and again, in international versions. We’re already fans of the music score by Miklos Rosza. I don’t expect it to be longer or different than the standard 154-minute cut we see here, but who knows?  You never can tell: perhaps an Italian cut will indeed carry a directing credit for Sergio Leone.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

↑  Here’s a simple article about a disc collector on top of things … or at least one who has a better handle on his collection that I do. And I know of no better way to get my attention than a simple name drop, if appropriate. I’m kidding, but in this context I’m very happy to be mentioned. This Rob Dunkelberger gets to show off a handsome home theater setup, and the expected racks of discs. And he has 3-D too!   I wish all my favorite people lived nearby so I could show them movies and lend them discs… uh, you know, when our present global disaster is past-tense news. Thank you Mr. Dunkelberger — the article, written by Greg Carlson, has been given the enigmatic, ambiguous title Collecting Movies with Rob Dunkelberger.

←  I forgot a book last week when rounding up my favored books reviewed at CineSavant. It’s Hollywood Divided: The 1950 Screen Directors Guild Meeting and the Impact of the Blacklist by Kevin Brianton. I reviewed it at CineSavant back on August 8, 2017. This one was fascinating — it corrects a lot of oft-repeated misinformation about one of the key meetings of the Blacklist years: John Ford never exactly said, “I make Westerns” and Joe Mankiewicz wasn’t as dead-set opposed to a loyalty oath as we were told. A lot of what was said by numerous name directors, was recorded verbatim.

And Arnold Leibovit’s new The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 disc just slipped in the door, and I hope to have a review out right away, especially if it looks as good as I think it will. Judging by the contents I’m going to like this one even more than the first — it has by my count four ‘Jasper’ cartoons, which had a BIG impact on me as a little kid. I think I’ve only ever seen one in color. This has been a major labor of love for Leibovit for what seems like forever, and the timing for the holidays seems very propitious! I’m pretty sure that this is the official place to find the disc online.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

Writing the King Kong ’76 review was a workout … I have friends to thank for correcting my faulty memory. But I forgot about one more wrinkle, and a notable one. I’ve seen makeup specialist Rick Baker several times at events, book signings, etc., but I forgot that I met Baker ‘sort of’ on the set of 1941 late in 1978. I say ‘sort of’ because I never saw his face.

The first shoot on 1941 was the Ocean Park Amusement Park miniature, which filled half of MGM’s giant Stage 30, the famous Esther Williams stage with the enormous water tank. Tension was high during filming, until the all-important Ferris Wheel gag came off like a charm. The Wheel was so impressive, and the subsequent filming of Ken Swenson’s terrific radio controlled tank so smooth, that the pressure came down considerably. Greg Jein’s miniature prop makers won the full admiration of Bill Fraker’s demanding camera crew.

John Landis had been on the miniature set a lot, joking and having fun. On the last day of filming my fellow production assistant (soon to be promoted to Associate Producer) asked me to help cue something special. As a surprise, Landis had asked his close friend and collaborator Rick Baker to don one of his ape suits (I assume he had more than one) so that when Spielberg called the wrap, he could rush out onto the Ocean Park Set as if he was going to destroy it, like King Kong would. I knew all about Rick Baker from Landis’s movie Schlock and his achievement in Kong ’76, but when I opened the trailer to tell Baker it was time to come out I wasn’t prepared for the sight of the ape suit. I believe he was in there with his wife (?) who had helped him ‘dress.’ All I did was smile, and say something dumb like, ‘this must be the suit from Kong.’ There was a delay and somebody else went out to actually bring Baker to the set, maybe Landis himself. The gag could only be so effective because the lights on the big miniature had already been turned off and the wrap called. Baker/Kong did indeed do a one-minute rampage through Ocean park, waving his arms. Spielberg thought it pretty crazy.

Because of the dim lighting, the only photos taken of the gag were semi-silhouetted. I thought one was printed in The Making of ‘1941’ but apparently not. The miniature crew was almost too exhausted to laugh. I remember master prop maker Tim Huchthausen not being happy, concerned that ‘Kong’ would smash his beautiful carousel with its painted horses. But Kong was respectful.

The best pictures were of Spielberg mugging with Baker/Kong afterwards. In the photo I somehow ended up with, Kong’s perfect-looking ape hand is wrapped around Steven’s neck; he’d engineered these ‘finger extensions’ that gave an impression of full dexterity. Baker is wearing Spielberg’s cap, from the ‘Oak Tree Gun Club’ where John Milius held frequent gatherings.

You had to admire Rick Baker and that suit … most actors in monster suits can’t see where they are going or what they are doing, but Baker barely needed assistance to move through the set, and climb stairs. It was just one of many amazing days on that movie, with so many stars, stunts, and action comedy set pieces.

Plus one more item … the Warner Archive Collection promised a big holiday bounty of desirable discs, sort of a pandemic surprise. They’ve certainly come through. I need to get reviews going on these right away!

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson

Hello!

It’s no secret that every page at CineSavant hawks my 2012 book with a linking graphic …

… and I naturally think it’s a great thing … the book of Classic Sci-fi reviews still sells. But today I want to highlight some other books I’ve reviewed over the past few years, by linking to my CineSavant Column reviews. I’ve chosen one title each from six CineSavant correspondents that have been helpful or encouraging to my page… or that simply wrote great books that I keep referring to.

From Alan K. Rode is the show-biz biography

Joseph McBride allowed me an early look at his investigatory account

A likely-desirable Tom Weaver tome is his

For those into genre studies there’s Lee Broughton’s

It’s not written by a friend, but this book recommended by friend Craig Reardon certainly lived up to its promise and is great gift material:

And, although I couldn’t find my original review in time, here’s a good notice for John McElwee’s

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson